Food Review: Deseo Bistro

Deseo Bistro

696 Osborne Street

UPDATED: OCTOBER 2014

Walking into Deseo from from the cold of a Winnipeg winter is a pleasure. The restaurant is cozy without being crowded. Their services is extraordinary, their choice of art is interesting, and their willingness to accommodate vegetarians a real pleasure. Reserving a table online was convenient. I cannot say enough good things about this place. This is very clearly one of the best restaurants in the city.

We ordered:

Goat Cheese Cheese Cake (amazing)

Crisp Cauliflower

Black Truffel Gnocchi (amazing)

Crunch Salad (amazing)

Faro as Risotto

On my second we ordered:
Eggplant
Beet Salad
Chicken
Tagliatelle

The goat cheese cheese cake changed my wife’s life. The crunch salad very nearly changed mine. The rest of the food was fantastic but they were not as good as those dishes, but how could they have been? Then I tried the chicken. Man oh man that chicken is amazing! The battering, the hot sauce, and the exquisite juiciness of the meat was more than incredible. It may have been the best chicken I have ever eaten. The eggplant also stood out, it was perfectly cooked and very tasty. These dishes are everything I look for in professionally prepared food: well balanced flavors, rich but not heavy, perfectly portioned, nice to look at, and impossible to replicate in my home kitchen without many flops and tons of practice. Deseo charges exactly the price I would expect for food of the quality they offer. I also happen to know that they source their ingredients locally as often as possible. What more could you want? Bring a date, bring friends, bring anyone you can. This place is worth eating at.

Until next time,

Review: Punjab Sweet House & Restaurant

Punjab Sweet House

88 Mandalay Drive

I heard about this place from a friend who said this is the best Indian food in the city. Claims like these are always a little bit hard to take seriously because there are so many choices. However, my wife and I were having dinner with some family members who regularly travel to India. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I wanted to test this food to their well practiced palate. They choose the dishes and they picked up the food so I can’t say a lot about the location or the atmosphere except from second hand account. Based on  their description it sounds like the Punjab Sweet House is very much family run, with grandpa sitting in a chair supervising the on goings and the grandchildren playing at a table nearby.

We ordered:

Burtha

Chana Masala

Dal Makhni

Shahi Paneer

Mix Vegetable Curry

Samosas

Nan

Rice (I don’t know if it is included in the price)

Of these, the chana masala stood out as the best chickpea curry I have tried in a restaurant.  All the other dishes were very good as well. The samosas and the naan were pretty standard. My globetrotting family members said the food was authentic and very tasty. I should mention that everything is vegetarian, which disappointed the butter chicken lovers at the table. This is the best Indian restaurant in I have been to in Winnipeg.

If you go to their restaurant you can order from the buffet, which gives you a range of delicious food what isn't expansive, but it is delicious. They sometimes change what is served so it would take along time to get tired of this extremely well priced buffet. One of the interesting things about eating in is how good the service is. There is always a staff member checking to make sure you have enough hot naan or making sure you are enjoying your food. Its nice.

Until next time,

Food Review: Pizzeria Gusto

Pizzeria Gusto

404 Academy Rd

UPDATED: OCTOBER 2014

Pizzeria Gusto is a cozy restaurant with a very nice patio. I will betray the fact that I ate here several months ago by saying that we ate outside. The patio has tables as well as couch for a more casual dining experience. Since we didn’t have a reservation and it was busy we were relegated to the couch. I say relegated, but I actually enjoyed sitting there a lot.

I have eaten here several times and the food is consistently good.  

We ordered two pizzas:

-          Quatro Fromaggi (with a cracked egg on it)

-          Ryall

Both of these pizzas satisfied our craving. The Quatro Fromaggi was especially good with the egg on top. There is a wide range of options and flavors with the meat pizzas, and for once there is also a respectable range of vegetarian options. It is true that most are the same as the ones you get everywhere. Here they do them well, but sometimes I wish restaurants would have a bit more derring-do in creating their veggie pizza options.

All in all it is a wonderful place to bring a date, have a nice evening, and eat at the nicest upscale pizza in Winnipeg.

Until Next Time,

Food Review: Bard & Banker Pub

Bard & Banker Pub

1022 Government St

Victoria, BC

This is one of the prettiest pubs I’ve ever been to. It is located in a historic bank building. Stepping in, I felt transported into an imaginary UK where everyone drinks in grand halls adorned with brass and built of dark wood. The illusion was maintained when I saw the beer menu, which was impressive and included a great selection on tap.  I was seated promptly and the service was good.

I ordered the house made veggie burger

I thought that the veggie burger was entirely forgettable.  I asked my friends how they thought the food was and they agreed with me. This place is a pub first and a restaurant second and it would do you well to keep that in mind. Overall, it was a great place to have visited because of the beer selection and the beautiful architecture but you should come here to drink not to eat.

Until Next Time,

Food Review: Sam’s Deli & Bistro

Sam’s Deli & Bistro

805 Government St
Victoria, BC

I had finally checked into my hotel and I spent a few confused hours without food wondering around downtown Victoria. My ultimate goal was to sit by the beach in Beacon Hill Park (which is fabulous) and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet for a few hours before my friends’ flights arrived and I would have to deal with the hustle and bustle of the conference I was attending. This meant that I went to the first place that looked like I could get food fast. Sam’s Deli & Bistro was where I ended up.

It is a neat idea: it had the fast-food-sandwich-joint-style of serving and choices (bread, meat etc, veggies, sauces). The twist was that instead of having tons of bread and veggies, it was pretty much a regular homemade sandwich. The bread was plain old grocery store bread and it came packed in a little plastic container. Unfortunately, everything cost extra (avocados, pickles, even some of the bread options) and it was very unclear what was on the veggie sandwich.

Ultimately, it cost more than I wanted to spend and it tasted like a sandwich I could have made at home. At first this upset me because I should have just gone home and made the darn thing for cheaper. If you are a Victoria resident you should feel the same way; but this is the tourist zone. People who go here are probably far from home and don’t want to buy bread, pickles, tomato, mayo, avocado etc.. for a home-style sandwich because they would have to figure out what to do with them later. They just want that piece of home away from home and it can definitely be found in the sandwiches here. In that sense it is a decent place and I did enjoy it. I just wish it was cheaper.

Until next time,

Food Review: Li’L Viking Lounge & Harbour Dock Café

Li’L Viking Lounge & Harbour Dock Café

Gull Harbour Marina 

Hecla Island, MB 

I was going through my 'posts not posted' folder and found a few reviews from the summer that I never got around to posting. This place is probably closed for the season, but it will be open next spring.

This is pretty much your choice of dining out in Hecla Island Manitoba. The restaurant is located inside the main floor of the old fishery and oozes with the old Manitoba tradition of screened in patios. The place is clean and the view of the harbour is quite scenic as the sun goes down. The task of trying to keep a restaurant open seasonally in a less frequented part of the province means that the food is more expensive than in the city.

The restaurant attracts a variety of clientèle from sports fishermen to elderly vacationers to families, and as a result they have a standard beer menu and a fabulous array or locally made deserts. They make cinnamon buns in-house, and I am told that they disappear within hours of their creation. They also make brownies and some other lighter squares. However, the big selling point is the pickerel. It is obvious that their other menu items play a secondary role to their locally caught fish. I don’t usually order it, but my family always does.

I have ordered:

-          Nachos

-          Coconut Cream pie

-          Greek Salad

-          Caesar Salad   

-          Pizza

-          French Fries

Most of the food is made well and will appeal to your fast-food/pub food cravings. The coconut cream pie is very good. It is really nice the French fries are not greasy. The fish and chips (I am told) are moist, flavourful, and well battered. If you are staying at the lighthouse inn or the resort and you want to spend the evening looking at the sunset over the lake, this is the place to be.

Until next time,

It's been a while...

As it turns out, it has been over a month since my last post. There have been a few reasons for this:

1) I am very busy at work so instead of writing blog posts I have been working.
2) I have been eating out less because my wife and I are trying to save money so that we can travel for a few months next year, or buy a house, or both.
3) I have been re-eating at places and updating those posts
4) I keep wanting to post about other things related to food but running out of time to do so.

Here is a teaser trailer of a few blog topics I have been thinking about:

- Borscht Burger Recipe
- Food story interviews
- Talk about a major food choice my wife and I made that we are just starting this week.
- Type up a few more food reviews that I have lurking around
- Edit a few of my older posts more carefully because some of them need it.

I hope to write again soon,